Inspired Lyrics

ShoulderChip

Post some lyrics that inspire you or mean something to you,

preferrably small segments of them or one liners,
and explain them if you wish.



Willie Mason - Oxygen
I know it sounds like a dream
But it's the only thing that can get me to sleep at night

Arcade Fire - Wake up
If the children don’t grow up,
our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up.
We’re just a million little god’s causin rain storms turnin’ every good thing to rust.

Of Montreal - suffer for Fashion
if we've got to burn out
let's do it together
let's all melt down together
together

sink

The whole song is guide to live by.

Dan Le Sac vs Sroobious Pip - Thou shalt always kill wrote:

Thou shalt not steal if there is direct victim.
Thou shalt not worship pop idols or follow lost profits.
Thou shalt not take the names of Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Johnny Hartman, Desmond Decker, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix or Syd Barrett in vain.
Thou shalt not think any male over the age of 30 that plays with a child that is not their own is a paedophile - Some people are just nice.
Thou shalt not read NME.
Thou shalt not stop liking a band just because they’ve become popular.
Thou shalt not question Stephen Fry.
Thou shalt not judge a book by its cover.
Thou shalt not judge Lethal Weapon by Danny Glover.
Thou shalt not buy Coca-Cola products, thou shalt not buy Nestle products.
Thou shalt not go into the woods with your boyfriend’s best friend, take drugs and cheat on him.
Thou shalt not fall in love so easily.
Thou shalt not use poetry, art or music to get into girls pants - use it to get into their heads.
Thou shalt not watch Hollyoaks.
Thou shalt not attend an open mic and leave before it’s done just because you’ve finished your ****ty little poem or song, you self-righteous prick.
Thou shalt not return to the same club or bar week in, week out, just ’cause you once saw a girl there that you fancied but you’re never gonna ****ing talk to.

Thou shalt not put musicians and recording artists on ridiculous pedestals no matter how great they are or were.
The Beatles - Were just a band.
Led Zepplin - Just a band.
The Beach Boys - Just a band.
The Sex Pistols - Just a band.
The Clash - Just a band.
Crass - Just a band.
Minor Threat - Just a band.
The Cure - just a band.
The Smiths - Just a band.
Nirvana - Just a band.
The Pixies - Just a band.
Oasis - Just a band.
Radiohead - they're just a band.
Bloc Party - Just a band.
The Arctic Monkeys - Just a band.
The Next Big Thing - Just a band

Thou shalt give equal worth to tragedies that occur in non-English speaking countries as to those that occur in English speaking countries.
Thou shalt remember that guns, bitches and bling were never part of the four elements and never will be.
Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music, thou shalt not make repetitive generic music, thou shalt not make repetitive generic music, thou shalt not make repetitive generic music.
Thou shalt not pimp my ride.
Thou shalt not scream if you wanna go faster.
Thou shalt not move to the sound of the wickedness.
Thou shalt not make some noise for Detroit.
When I say “Hey” thou shalt not say “Ho.”
When I say “Hip” thou shalt not say “Hop.”
When I say, he say, she say, we say, make some noise - kill me.

*Oh hang on a minute I've forgot were I was - hang on*...

Thou shalt not quote me happy.
Thou shalt not shake it like a polaroid picture.
Thou shalt not wish your girlfriend was a freak like me.
Thou shalt spell the word “Phoenix” P-H-E-O-N-I-X, not P-H-O-E-N-I-X, regardless of what the Oxford English Dictionary tells you.
Thou shalt not express your shock at the fact that Sharon got off with Brad at club last night by saying “Is it.”
Thou shalt think for yourselves.
And thou shalt always, thou shalt always - kill

Sorry if it's too long but it's all worth posting.

Sinfonia

Pretty much anything by The Smiths/Morrissey.
The following stand out first in my mind:

How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths (the whole song really)
There's a club if you'd like to go,
You could meet somebody who really loves you,
So you go and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own,
And you go home and you cry and you want to die.

That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore - The Smiths (the whole song really)
When you laugh about people who feel so very lonely their only desire is to die,
Well I'm afraid it doesn't make me smile,
I wish I could laugh but that joke isn't funny anymore.

There There - Radiohead
We are accidents waiting, waiting to happen

Pyramid Song - Radiohead
And we all went to heaven in a little row boat,
There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt

Many Lives -> 49 MP - Final Fantasy
I picture a man who lives in the past,
He keeps a book of photographs of his younger self, clairvoyant self

Tired of Sex - Weezer (the whole song really, I love it, it's so honest)
I'm tired, so tired, I'm tired of having sex (so tired)
I'm spread so thin I don't know who I am (I am)

The Good Life - Weezer
I wanna go back, I wanna go back, and I don't even know how I got off the track

I'm Your Man - Leonard Cohen the whole song, but particularly:
If you want a lover I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love I'll wear a mask for you
...
Ah but a man never got a woman back, not by begging on his knees
Or I'd crawl to you baby and I'd fall at your feet
And I'd howl at your beauty like a dog in heat
And I'd claw at your heart and I'd tear at your sheet I'd say please, please


I'll add more when I think of them

Creamy Goodness

Sinfonia wrote: »

Tired of Sex - Weezer (the whole song really, I love it, it's so honest)
I'm tired, so tired, I'm tired of having sex (so tired)
I'm spread so thin I don't know who I am (I am)

The Good Life - Weezer
I wanna go back, I wanna go back, and I don't even know how I got off the track

most emotional packed album ever in my books. not a single bad line throughout.

sticking with the weezer theme

say it ain't so - weezer
Dear daddy, I write you, in spite of years of silence
you've cleaned up, found Jesus, things are good ohh so I hear
this bottle, of Stevens, awakens ancient feelings
like father, step-father, the son is drowning in the flood.


toys, toys, toys, choke, toys, toys, toys - biffy clyro
love makes some things taste good not all just you I love your style you hate my lies
in time always you suffer

Ho-Hum

We don't need nobody else - Whipping Boy

Why say words that I do not mean
They only serve to amuse, ridicule and destroy,
Hardly ever to teach
I hit you for the first time today
I didn't mean it
It just happened
You wouldn't let me go to the phone,
You wanted to make love and I did not
Now I know the distance between us
Christ we weren't even fighting, I was just annoyed
Silence and you started to cry, that really hurt
You said, yeah and you thought you knew me

Pale Blue Eyes - Velvet Underground

It was good what we did yesterday.
And I'd do it once again.
The fact that you are married,
Only proves, you're my best friend.
But it's truly, truly a sin.
Linger on, your pale blue eyes.
Linger on, your pale blue eyes.

Joe_Dull

Nosebleed - Maximo Park

He changed his look for you
You changed your life for him
Now was the verdict worth the trial?

Xavi6

Some Roddy Woomble gems -

'The Space Between All Things' -

your thoughts are the strangest place that you've ever been,
stranger even than Los Angeles,
it's like a cinema where they never ask you to leave,

'El Capitan' -

Stand up,
stand up,
and stand down,
and I hope you take your camera,
to photograph my tears as they hit the ground

'Goodnight' -

It's your heroes who are to blame
Constantly saying things that they don't explain

'In Remore Part/Scottish Fiction' -

So I'll wait 'til I find the remote part of your heart
When nowhere else will let us choose a comfortable start

el_tiddlero

Hot Snakes - 10th Planet:

"More common than the common cold.."

lordgoat

sink wrote: »

The whole song is guide to live by.

That's very funny seen as the main message is to think for yourself and not let other people tell you what you should or shouldn't be doing.

lordgoat

Anything by Elliott Smith.

sink

lordgoat wrote: »

That's very funny seen as the main message is to think for yourself and not let other people tell you what you should or shouldn't be doing.

Lol, I musta missed the irony when I posted.

lordgoat

sink wrote: »

Lol, I musta missed the irony when I posted.

Clearly you did. I love the old oh i'll be ironic card.

I'll let you get back to your milupa, sorry Good Start...

chalad07

One lyric that's i've always thought to be brilliant:

"Quick to the point, to the point no fakin'
Cookin' MC's like a pound of Bacon"
The great MC Hammer

yevveh

Mr. Bungle - Pink Cigarette

"I'm hoping the smoke
Hides the shame I've got on my face
Cognac and broken glass
All these years I've been your ashtray.

Not today."

Mr. Bungle - Retrovertigo

"Now I'm finding truth is a ruin
Nauseous end that nobody is pursuing
Staring into glassy eyes
Mesmerized
There's a vintage thirst returning
But I'm sheltered by my channel-surfing
Every famine virtual
Retrovertigo."

Biffy Clyro - Glitter and Trauma

"Slaughtered moments and useless tales, encourage others to take the blame.
I love you when, you're not around."

John Butler Trio - Peaches and Cream

"Well there's far too many questions to ask,
To answer any of them tonight.
For I wear too many masks,
Too tell if any of them are wrong or right.
And confusion casts a shadow up on me,
Like a great big cloud in the sky.
And now I pray for rain,
Cause it's been so long since I let myself cry."

I love all of NIN's Hurt but especially these four lines..

"If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way"

The Smiths - What Difference Does It Make?

"All men have secrets and here is mine
So let it be known
For we have been through hell and high tide
I can surely rely on you
And yet you start to recoil
Heavy words are so lightly thrown
But still I'd leap in front of a flying bullet for you

So, what difference does it make?"

Also Smiths - Still Ill

"Does the body rule the mind,
or does the mind rule the body?
I dunno."

As Sinfonia said there's too much great Smiths lyrics to pick out just a few.

I could go on but I reckon that's more than enough for now

IanCurtis

Sufjan Stevens - A Good Man Is Hard To Find
I once was better.
I put off all my grief.
I put off all my grief.
And so I go to hell, I wait for it,
but someone's left me creased.
Someone's left me creased

IanCurtis

chalad07 wrote: »

One lyric that's i've always thought to be brilliant:

"Quick to the point, to the point no fakin'
Cookin' MC's like a pound of Bacon"
The great MC Hammer

Vanilla Ice actually :rolleyes:

Another in a long line of public embarrassments for chalad07

JaneyMc

Medication - Queens of the Stoneage

is this the dose you've been dreamin' of?
A revelation from a gun
Doesn't matter
Overtaken, mine was yours, now overthrown

Regina Spektor - On the Radio

This is how it works
You're young until you're not
You love until you don't
You try until you can't
You laugh until you cry
You cry until you laugh
And everyone must breathe
Until their dying breath

Brand New - Seventy Times Seven

So is that what you call a getaway?
Tell me what you got away with
Cause I've seen more spine on jellyfish
I've seen more guts on eleven-year-old kids

Is that what you call tact?
You're as subtle as a brick in the small of my back
So let's end this call and end this conversation
And is that what you call a getaway?
Tell me what you got away with
Cause you left the frays from the ties you severed
when you say "best friends" means friends forever

gustavo

Another Smiths one Nowhere fast




And when I'm lying in my bed
I think about life
And I think about death
And neither one particularly appeals to me
And if the day came when I felt a
Natural emotion
I'd get such a shock I'd probably lie
In the middle of the street and die

K0K0

the fool's gold mouthpiece, the hollow horn
plays wasted words, proofs to warn
that he not busy being born
is busy dying

PrivateEye

the bed is kind of narrow, but my arms are open wide.
And here's a man still working for your smile.

Leonard Cohen-I Tried To Leave You.


What a beautiful dream
That could flash on the screen
In a blink of an eye and be gone from me

Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over The Sea

Cross the city down the alleys
A thousand kids like me
They are watching through red eyes
The flock of little birds gracefully gliding by
Damien Dempsey- Spraypaint Backalley


The scars of the past are slow to disappear
The cries of the dead are always in our ears
Only the very safe
can talk about wrong or right
Of those who are forced to choose
some will choose to fight
For all of our languages.... we can't communicate

Christy Moore-Natives

And I've won hundreds at the track
But I'm not betting on the afterlife

Jenny Lewis (of Rilo Kiley)- The Big Guns

Isn't often that I try to climb this mountain
But today I find I'm half way to the top
It's a bit shaky here
but don't get all worried up now dear
I got a feeling if I fell right now I'd roll right into heaven...

Dan Andriano (of AlkalineTrio)- Way Too Many Times

kaki

Jeff Buckley - Dreambrother

There is a child sleeping near his twin
The pictures go wild in a rush of wind
That dark angel he is shuffling in
Watching over them with his black feather wings unfurled

The love you lost with her skin so fair
Is free with the wind in her butterscotch hair
Her green eyes blew goodbyes
With her head in her hands
and your kiss on the lips of another
Dream Brother, with your tears scattered round the world.

Joy Division - Love will tear us apart

Why is the bedroom so cold
Turned away on your side?
Is my timing that flawed,
Our respect run so dry?
Yet theres still this appeal
That weve kept through our lives
Love, love will tear us apart again

Kaki King - Jessica

Jessica says she'd wait for me.
I'd be 18 when she is turning 23.

Decorates her room with greeting cards
They burn up when she turns the light on in the dark.

And last but not least, my favourite rhyming couplet of all time:

Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day

Goldenrod and the 4H stone,
The things I brought you when I found out you had cancer of the bone.

IanCurtis

Oh the bed ain't made
but it's filled full of hope
I've got a skinful of dope

"History" - The Verve

Littlebluestar

Leonard Cohen recited this poem at his recent gigs in Kilmainham, really moving...okay not strictly lyrics but fit pretty well to the song A Thousand Kisses Deep from 10 new songs...and it's Leonard! It's long but it's worth the read.

You came to me this morning
and you handled me like meat
you’d have to be a man to know
how good that feels how sweet
my mirror twin my next of kin
i know you in my sleep
and who but you would take me in
a thousand kisses deep

i loved you when you opend
like a lily to the heat
you see i'm just another snowman
standing in the rain and sleet
who loved you with his frozen love
his second-hand physique
with all he is and all he was
a thousand kisses deep

i know you had to lie to me
i know you had to cheat
to pose all hot and high
behind the veils of sheer deceit
our perfect porn aristocrat
so elegant and cheap
i'm old but i'm still into that
a thousand kisses deep

i'm good at love
i'm good at hate
it's in between i freeze
then work it out-but it's to late
it's been too late for years
but you look good you really do
they'll love you on the street
a snowflake must have died for you
a thousand kisses deep

'was looking at the crucifix
got something in my eye - a light
that dosen't need to live
and dosen't need to die
a riddle in a book of love
obscure and obsolete
as witnessed here in time and blood
a thousand kisses deep

and i'm,
i'm still working with the wine
still dancing cheek to cheek
the band is playing "auld lang syne"
but the heart will not retreat
i ran with Diz i sang with Ray
i never had their sweep
but once or twice they let me play
a thousand kisses deep

but you don't need to hear me now
and every word i speak
it counts against me anyhow
a thousand kisses deep


Also these lyrics by CocoRosie

And then the lights came on
In the middle of the night
What I should do with my life
How should I spend my time
I'll be a stockbroker and I'll get me a wife
Gave the diamonds cut
And have the diamonds

yevveh

Sunset Rubdown - "The Empty Threats of Little Lord"

The podium's as high as the gallows are low
Swing low, swing low..

lordgoat

Littlebluestar wrote: »

Leonard Cohen recited this poem at his recent gigs in Kilmainham, really moving...okay not strictly lyrics but fit pretty well to the song A Thousand Kisses Deep from 10 new songs...and it's Leonard! It's long but it's worth the read.

Apologies for going off topic.

You should check out Philip Glass' Book of Longing. He puts LC poems to music. He's also playing or has played in a cathederal in Drogheda (and Galway?) soon i think. If you are not familiar with him he is lauded as one of the greatest composers in modern music.

IanCurtis

Littlebluestar wrote: »

Leonard Cohen recited this poem . . .

Jesus must have been strange listening to him reading out all those fonts

Littlebluestar

IanCurtis wrote: »

Jesus must have been strange listening to him reading out all those fonts

That's the Cocorosie quote, much more their style!

Littlebluestar

lordgoat wrote: »

Apologies for going off topic.

You should check out Philip Glass' Book of Longing. He puts LC poems to music. He's also playing or has played in a cathederal in Drogheda (and Galway?) soon i think. If you are not familiar with him he is lauded as one of the greatest composers in modern music.

Cheers.

LC does a pretty good job of this himself...

I'm not looking for another as I wander in my time
Walk me to the corner, our steps will always rhyme
You know my love goes with you as your love stays with me
It's just the way it changes like the shoreline and the sea
But let's not talk of love or chains and things we can't untie
Your eyes are soft with sorrow
Hey darlin, that's no way to say goodbye

Philip Glass is playing tonight I believe.

lordgoat

Littlebluestar wrote: »

Cheers.

LC does a pretty good job of this himself...

I'm not looking for another as I wander in my time
Walk me to the corner, our steps will always rhyme
You know my love goes with you as your love stays with me
It's just the way it changes like the shoreline and the sea
But let's not talk of love or chains and things we can't untie
Your eyes are soft with sorrow
Hey darlin, that's no way to say goodbye

Philip Glass is playing tonight I believe.

Yeah it's LC reciting his poetry to music glass composed. He is playing tonight. He played last night it galway too.

Godo choice of song he played it last at one of his gigs i believe or in the encore of one.

cautioner

+1 For the Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, Arcade Fire and Regina Spektor references.
If I had to pick a Regina song though I'd go for Aprés Moi:

Be afraid of the lame; they'll inherit your legs
Be afraid of the old; they'll inherit your soul
Be afraid of the cold; they'll inherit your blood
Aprés moi le deluge... After me comes the flood

Gotta love the evil sounding Russian as well

Green Gloves by The National is a gem:

Get inside their clothes, with my green gloves
Watch their videos, in their chairs
Get inside their beds, with my green gloves,
Get inside their heads. Love their loves...

Now I hardly know them, but I'll take my time
I'll carry them over... and I'll make them mine

westdublin

I’m not used coming through
More accustomed to a falling out
Trying hard now as i can for you
Not to **** up on some stupid doubt
You got your hopes set way up high
Way on up there where the air is thin
Limit’s supposed to be the sky
Trying not to let you down again

It’s starting to come to me
I didn’t know about, i hadn’t figured it out
But it’s starting to come to me now
A little bit too late

I can’t see anything you’ve done
Any reason for the trouble you’ve got
You haven’t hurt anyone
Compared to most i’d say thats saying quiet alot
I can’t help you when you’re sad
That’s a constant source of pain to me
Because i want to really bad
Even though you make it seem like nothing

It’s starting to come to me
Didn’t know about, i hadn’t figured it out
But it’s starting to come to me now
A little bit too late